I'm a 20 year old college student and myFico reports my Transunion Score as 704 and Experian at 657. I bought a report from Equifax's website, and it says my scores are in the 620-640 range for all three credit bureaus. I'm not entirely sure which scores are accurate....... also, which ones do lenders look at?

I currently have a Sears Card, 3 store cards and a US Bank Credit Card. Sears i was approved for recently with a 1000 limit, US Bank gave me 400, and the Store Cards vary from 300-500. The Sears card is a mastercard and my main card, the other ones i use very sparingly. I'm usually very good about making payments, and have almost never made a late payment. However, what's hurting me is high credit utilization. I tend to spend a decent amount on a card(besides the sears card), and pay the balance off in full every month. My limits are low, so i exceed the ideal debt utilization percentage, but i have no trouble making the payments. I know NOW that this is not the right way to do things, and to keep the utilization of debt/credit low. I do not have any collections, but i do have student loans, and have already begun paying those off, even though I deferred payment until after i graduate.I owe about 19k to school, and will pay that off as soon as possible after graduation.

For Some time now, I have debated switching my bank from US bank to wells fargo. I opened a checking account at Wells, and tried to open a college card, but was denied, because of "past poor performance with a Wells Fargo Checking Account". This is from when I was 14, and terrible with money. I talked to their collections department, and paid the fee of 35.00 to pay off that old account in full. Collections told me that this account was clear and that I should not have trouble getting approved for a card.

A few days later, I tried to open a Secured card, knowing that my scores were a little low based on the Equifax report, and was denied for that secured card for the same reason of past poor perfomance. I'm wondering if this is a bank issue, or is my credit score playing a part in this denial as well? Depending on which report you look at, MyFico or Equifax's 3 credit bureau, i Could be approved using one set of scores and denied by the other. Which one are the lenders looking at, and is 620-640(if that's what it is) too low for a wells fargo secured Credit card?

My questions are: how can i get my score up and how fast will i see improvement?

My scores have been hovering around this 600-650 mark for the past 2 years now, and I would like to see them increase. I've been responsible with my credit, made my payments, yet I still have a low score thanks to probably my debt utilization and student loans.

Any information/resources provided would be a great help. I'm young and would like to start building good habits and credit now, so that later in life I am secure financially.

Thank you very much

In addition to CR, Wells Fargo has their own internal records. Since you paid off the $35 CO from a checking account, I would ask for reconsideration. Their records may not have been updated at the time you appliesd for the secured card.

Re: denied wells fargo secured credit card?

That was the first thing I did. I talked to collections, confirmed it was paid off in full, then my banker called the underwriter and asked that this be added to the application and to their system. I'm going to cancel the app and focus on building with what I have. Ive lost patience with WF for their slow record keeping.

Re: denied wells fargo secured credit card?

mjb59463 wrote:That was the first thing I did. I talked to collections, confirmed it was paid off in full, then my banker called the underwriter and asked that this be added to the application and to their system. I'm going to cancel the app and focus on building with what I have. Ive lost patience with WF for their slow record keeping.

Re: denied wells fargo secured credit card?

You have $2,900 in available credit, yet, you owe a total of $321. SO, if you have $2,900 in credit -- for optimal FICO® scoring, you should only have let the $3 owing on the $700 limit store card REPORT on your credit reports -- all the rest of the cards should have ZERO owing when they report. THEN, your FICO® score will go up, up, UP.

THEN, after that $3 reports -- pay it off immediately!

That's how you play the utilization game and increase your FICO® score fast.

Works for me! Even though I am not looking to apply for anymore cards for awhile, I still play the utilization game because it helps me stay the course, my credit card bills are always paid EARLY and, our FICO® scores stay at an optimal level from month to month. Folks here will tell you that living like this is NOT necessary but, I prefer it.

Re: denied wells fargo secured credit card?

I disputed the Chase BP charge on my credit report. I put that i was no longer liable for it. To make sure before i disputed, I called Chase and gave them my account number, they told me the account was no longer in existence, and couldn't even look it up. They transferred me to a recovery agent, and he confirmed the same thing. They could not look up the account with either mine or my dad's name and SSN. They told me they could take it off my report, but since they told me that before, I told them I would dispute it myself. I logged into Equifax, disputed the claim, and was given a completion date of 8/16/12.

Re: denied wells fargo secured credit card?

Welcome to the Forums and congratulations for being so credit swavy at such a young age. I wish I knew half of what you know now when I was your age.

I agree that you have enough cards and you should probaby wait on applying for a while. Use your cards but make sure they are paid off before they report to the CB. Look at your credit card statements or look online and figure out what your "Statement Date" is. This date should be the same every single month. Make sure that your cards are at zero by the statement date every month. Note that the statement date is usually different from the due date. I didn't realize this for a long time. I would pay off my balance on the due date but use the cards and let stuff accumulate before the statement date. Thus each month, I had a balance reporting to the CB even though I paid it off every month.

The key to the credit journey is patient and restraint. If you spend anytime at all on this site, you will see lots of people come and go with approval stories. There is always the temptation to apply for something, esp if you have similar credit profiles. However you need to learn to wait and let your record get grow over time. Before you know it, you'll be able to apply and be approved for any card you set your heart on.

Re: denied wells fargo secured credit card?

Well I was declined for poor performance again...... They want me to bank with them for 6 months before i try again. I figure that I'll just continue my relationship with us bank, and forget about wells Fargo.

In this rebuilding journey, I too, applied for the secured card and didn't really hear anything. A few days later I got an email saying I was declined on the basis that they could not verify my identity.

I called credit card services, and answered all their security questions and asked for a recon - which they did.

I was out of town and got another email saying I was declined again. When I got back, I had a letter from them requesting I call and verify some information. Again.

So I called them today, and they said I was already approved and my card would be here in 7-10 business days.

I'm really glad I stayed on them. I have one positive tradeline and just paid off almost all my collections. I just haven't seen a big score increase yet.

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